, 1887-09-09
A MANUAL TRAINING SCHOOL.

Industrial Education In the Minneapolis
High SchooI-Working in Wood.
\ manual training school, under the
direction of Professor f.. w. Decker, has
lately been established by the school
boarl of the city, in connection with the
high school, and results have already
been obtained that promise well for the
success of this new enterprise. The
object of the course is not to make
finished mechanics in any definite trade,
but rather to give a general training that
shall serve to render boys familiar with
common tools and materials of construc-
ton, and lay a good foundation for any
one of the several mechanical trades.
The course serves also to correct some
of the popular notions among boys that
manual occupations are degrading, or at
any rate not SO respectable as occupations
requiring only book knowledge. This
result is attained by placing the manual
training course on an equal footing with
the other high school courses, and re-
quiring the same attention to system and
order as in any branch of knowledge
taught.
The course for the present term is
wood working. A large lower room of
iiit ihBh bCIlOOl DullllUR has Deem uIUeQ
up with benches and drawers and a va
riety of wood working tools. Each bench
is provided with a full set of bench tools,
and each boy has, besides, a number of
edge tools and a drawer in which to keep
them locked when not in use. Each boy
is required to keep his Individual tools in
order, and all the bench tools have their
proper places on a rack in front, where
tInN~ -, h. ,1,..1 81 A. - = 81
exercise. The benches and bench tools
are lettered to correspond, SO that it is
easy to see at a glance that everything is
in its proper place.
The use of the tools is taught in the
following manner, it being assumed there
is only n right way. The boys are
each given n plane, for instance, and,
after being shown the nature and CON
struction of the tool, they are shown how
TO use it properly. All this is taught to
them as a class. They are then given
each a piece of board and are required to
produce a plane surface, each being
drilled until he is tolerably proficient in
the use of the tool before being allowed
to go on. Saving is taught in a similar
manner The saw is first discussed, and
the reason for the teeth being shaped diff
leISLLy lOT CTOSSCuV anu rip saws Is
pointed out. A board is her marked
with a scratch awl and the class is shown
how to saw to line accurately. They are
then each required to saw to given lines
until the lesson is thoroughly taught. By
keeping the attention of the pupils on one
operation at a time and holding it until
taught, rapid and sure progress is made.
After the uses of a few Of the most COM
mon tools are thus taught, the boys are al
lowed to construct something that will
bring into use only operations they nave
previously learned. This serves to make
the work interesting, though the work is
designed to be for the purposes of instruc-
ton rather than construction.
Whenever ar article is constructed it Is
done from al accurate working drawing
made by the pupil himself, and thus the
value Of drawings, in connection with all
construction work, is taught better than
it could otherwise be done.
Each pupil is required to spend forty
minutes per day in the drawing room
and eighty minutes in the shop. Draw
ing is taught in much the same manner
as the use Of the tools just described, and
it is found that the two branches of work
go very nicely together.-T. T. Journal.